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“Batman,” Oracles voice floats through his comm unit while Dick is making his way through the watchtower for his monitoring shift.
Dick taps the side of his cowl. “Batman,” Dick grunts in their predetermined greeting. Internally, Dick just wants to ask ‘what’s the sitch’. But Batman stands on business, and he’s not currently alone in a dark corner of Gotham.
Oracle goes straight to business, “Robin is injured.”
Dick freezes as he takes his step forward. Damian wasn’t on patrol tonight. He’s not allowed to patrol Gotham without Dick in Gotham to supervise. “Where is he?”
“He’s on his way up to you.” Oracle responds without elaborating.
“He’s coming to the watchtower?” Worry leaks into Dick’s voice, not Batman’s. Damn the unspoken rules of how Batman needs to act. “Why? He wasn’t even supposed to be out patrolling tonight.”
“He was in Star City. This is closer than the cave.” Oracle informs him. Dick can hear the slightest tremble in her voice, and he hopes that it's from her being worried about Damian being in a new environment to be treated and not that he is currently bleeding out with someone. “He left the cave with Red Hood tonight, their reasoning being that you said that Robin couldn’t patrol Gotham without you. They wouldn’t be patrolling Gotham. Hood said that it’s his bruncle bonding.”
Or maybe Barbara’s worried that Dick is going to murder everyone in the family for letting his nine year old son go patrol an unknown area with someone who hasn’t actively trained with Damian for two years.
There is a hissing sound near Dick. He looks up to see the monitor room door open and Superman steps out.
“Batman, there you are. I was just coming to find you.” Clark points a thumb over his shoulder. “Are you ready to take over monitor duty?”
Dick blinks once at Superman, taking a step forward. He places a hand out flat at Superman as if he is about to push him. He continues to walk past the doorway.
“No. I need to get to the zeta tube.” Dick mutters, his speed quickening and leaving Superman standing in the doorway, confused. After a moment, Clark turns to tell J’onn to continue with monitor duty and races after Batman.
Racing down the hallway at a pace that is unbecoming of Batman while at the watchtower, Dick hears the familiar whoosh of Superman flying after him but chooses to ignore it.
—
Once they reach the zeta tubes, Batman freezes a few feet away. Superman stalls behind the other man. Superman analyzes the Batman before him. Superman knows that this isn’t the Batman that he founded the league alongside. His Batman has been gone for close to two years with few inside the league being the wiser.
The Batman standing in front of Clark is the one that Clark watched grow up into the young man he is today. No matter who is wearing the cowl, the behavior in front of Clark is alarming on several levels. As Nightwing, it was rare to see Dick this terrified. And that is exactly what the young man is. He’s standing with too much tension in his back, one of his hands at his side is tapping incessantly into his thigh, and his breath is shallow.
Taking the step forward, Clark stands beside Dick and places a hand on his shoulder. Dick’s shoulder’s tense, and he doesn’t acknowledge Clark.
“Di-Batman.” Clark starts, he squeezes the younger man’s shoulder, something that Bruce would have broken kryptonite out for. Dick still does not acknowledge that Clark is standing with him. Clark can hear as Dick’s heart rate rises with each beat. Again, Clark says, concerning leaking into his voice, “Batman.”
There is no response by the time the zeta tube lights up the designations B-03, B-07 announced to the room. Clark doesn’t know who B-03 is, but he’s met B-07 before, several times now. The blinding light of the zeta tube fades, leaving the notorious Red Hood cradling a bleeding Robin to his chest. Clark tenses ready for a fight, but Dick rushes forward, looking over Robin.
Dick looks up at Red Hood and growls, “Follow me.”
Red Hood and Batman rush past Superman, down the hallway. Clark hurries to rush after them towards the med-bay. By the time Clark is in the medbay with them, the two have Robin laying on an examination table, cutting away his suit.
“What happened,” Batman growls at the Red Hood, the two working in tandem.
“Obviously, he was shot.” Red Hood retorts, tossing Robin’s cape to the side of the room. “It went all the way through though, lost quite a bit of blood on the way here.”
Batman looks up at Superman. “Did the bullet hit anything vital?”
Clark startles slightly at the recognition, scanning Robin. “It pierced the edge of his liver.”
“O, get Leslie here. Now.” Batman says to no one that Clark can see.
Despite the lack of a person, a feminine voice responds, “Already on her way up.”
Like clockwork, the zeta tube announces two new arrivals: A-01, A-02 . Within the next two minutes, an older gentleman, who Clark has come to know as Alfred or Agent A rushes into the room with an older woman, presumably Leslie following close behind.
“Status?” Leslie asks as she rushes over to a sink on the side of the room, scrubbing her hands.
“Levels are currently stable, but declining. He has a bullet wound through and through, nicked his liver. He’s lost about half a pint of blood.” Dick responds stoically, not taking his eyes off of Damian. From the corner of his eye, Dick can see Alfred hooking an IV and a baggie of blood for a blood transfusion. Dick grabs Damian’s hand and squeezes it, looking up at Alfred, his lips pressed together tightly.
Leslie steps next to Dick, her gloves in place, and starts assessing the wound. She looks over at Dick. “You have to leave.”
Dick looks back down at Damian, not moving.
“Now.” Leslie demands. A strong pair of hands grab Dick’s shoulders and pull him away from Damian. They lead him out of the room. He sees Clark in the corner of his eye, following them out. Once they are out of the room and the door closes with a sense of finality. Dick spins around, shaking off the hands from his shoulder.
“What the fuck happened?” Dick demands, stepping up into Jason’s space. Clark puts a hand on Dick’s shoulder trying to calm him, to be immediately swatted away. Dick takes another step towards Jason. Jason’s shoulders slump, not moving away from Dick.
“I was trying to bond with the kid,” Jason explains, pulling the gleaming red helmet off of his head. He lets it dangle in his blood covered hands. “It wasn’t like I was trying to get your kid shot.”
“And yet, he’s being operated on right now?” Dick shouts. He throws his arms out towards the door. “My fucking kid is in there with a bullet wound, because you wanted to bond as a vigilante. When I told you to bond with him, I meant take him to the fucking zoo!”
Several footsteps thunder down the hallway, which Dick and Jason both ignore, staring each other down. Clark is standing a few paces back from the men, waiting to see if he needs to intervene. Looking to the new arrivals, Roy, Dinah, and Oliver stop once they see the view in front of them. Billy and Arthur come behind them after hearing commotion.
“When have we ever bonded like a normal fucking family?” Jason argues back. He swings his arm up, his helmet bouncing against his leg as he drops his arms back down. “I knew that kid before you did and we always did shit like this when we were supposed to bond, ” Jason snarls at the word, “I know what the kid is capable of!”
Dick takes a deep breath in, his breathing stuttering. “That was over two years ago! That’d be like me saying that I could have fought with you just fine when you came back.” Dick clenches his hands beside him. “He has been training for almost two years to learn different techniques used outside the league. He’s been implementing them in patrols, which you would know if you ever came to actually fucking practice with him instead of kidnapping him for you bonding experience!”
“Holy shit, Goldie.” Jason motions at everyone around them. “We get hurt all the fucking time. I know that he’s gotten hurt worse than this.”
Clenching his jaw, Dick grits out, “You know that not the fucking point.”
There are several tense heartbeats as Dick and Jason- Red Hood and Batman- stare each other down. The other heroes wait a bated breath, not wanting to move, waiting to see who will make the first move.
Dick takes another step towards Jason. Jason grinds his teeth, refusing to take a step back from a Batman.
Suddenly, Dick is pushed back a few steps as red and orange fill his vision.
“Hey, babe,” Wally gives Dick a nervous smile. He looks over his shoulder at Jason and then back at Dick. He keeps his hands on Dick’s shoulders, giving them a comforting squeeze- as much of one as he can through the bat armor. “Roy called me, told me what happened. How about we all take a few breaths and take some space before we make this night worse than it already is, yeah?”
“I’m not leaving,” Dick responds, his throat feeling tight, the fight leaving his body. He slumps slightly forward, towards Wally.
“Yeah, alright.” Wally shakes his head. “We aren’t leaving. I don’t think I could handle that either, but how about we sit down?”
Dick’s eyes flick over Wally’s shoulder at Jason, who is still standing tense. Roy slowly moves towards Jason and leans over, whispering something. Dick looks back at Wally. “Okay.”
Wally lets out a breath and leads Dick backwards towards the wall. Once Dick’s back meets the wall, he slides down, Wally sitting down next to him.
Half paying attention, Dick sees Roy grab Jason’s hand and lead him down the hallway towards the living quarters.
Oliver watches them leaving and asks, “Isn’t that a murderer on the JL’s wanted list?”
“He’s fine.” Dick responds curtly.
“Weren’t you about to fight him-?” Arthur asks.
“I said he’s fine.” Dick bites out. Wally sets a hand on Dick’s shoulder. The various league members start to back away, leaving the hallway.
—
Almost an hour passes before Roy and Jason make their way back to the hallway. Dick’s eyes flicker to them before they look back down at his lap where he’s been fiddling with the Flash ring on Wally’s hand. Jason’s wearing Bruce’s old clothes, his hair is wet, dripping down his face and a new mask is sitting on his face.
The four men sit in silence, Jason and Dick avoiding eye contact while Roy and Wally try to silently communicate with one another.
“You should lose the cowl,” Jason finally says, pointedly not looking at Dick.
“I’m not leaving.” Dick responds.
“Your husband is a speedster, have him change it out for a mask at least. Or your gaudy glasses.”
Dick grabs the hand that he has been fiddling with and squeezes it tightly. “He’s not leaving.”
“It’d be less than a second, but whatever,” Jason mutters. He raps his knuckles against Roy’s knee. Roy sighs, but pushes himself up and walks away. A minute later, Roy comes back, tossing a pair of sunglasses at Wally. Wally catches the glasses and in a blink switches out the cowl for glasses. The tension draining from Dick is instant as he slumps his head against Wally’s shoulder. Wally rests his head against Dick’s.
“I didn’t want the kid to get hurt.”
There’s a beat.
“I know.”
The four stay in silence after that.
—-
“He’s going to be fine.” Leslie says as she enters the hallway.
There is a collective sigh of relief. Wally and Dick stand, holding hands. They meet Leslie by the door, letting her tell them all of the protocols they have to follow for Damian to heal. Protocols they both already know, but they’ll listen to the spiel again. And they both know they’ll hear it from Alfred tonight as well.
“He won’t wake up for a while, but Alfred has gotten him all set up in there and you can go and sit in there with him.” Leslie tells them. She gives all four boys in the hallway a hard look. “Do not overwhelm him.”
“Yes, ma’am.” They chorus.
Leslie’s lips curl upward slightly. “I have to get going, but you all have my number if you need anything.”
Dick reaches his arm out and wraps Leslie in a hug. “Thanks,” he mutters.
Leslie pats his back. “I’d say anytime, but I would prefer if you boys stopped getting yourselves hurt.”
Jason snorts behind them and Leslie sighs. Dick drops his arms and lets Leslie leave.
Stepping forward, Dick walks into the room. He stops in the doorway and looks behind him at Jason, who is still against the opposite wall. “You coming?”
Jason lets out a breath, shoving his hands into his pockets. He nods once and follows Dick into the room.
—
“The league won’t stop messaging us about why I let a murder into the tower.” Dick sighs, putting his phone down. His sunglasses are pushed up into his hair. He rubs his face. “I don’t have it in me to go and deal with any of them.”
Roy pats Jason’s leg and stands up with a smirk. “Oh, don’t worry, I’ll explain it to them.”
“That worries me a lot actually,” Wally responds with a nervous laugh. “You have that look on your face before you stir shit.”
Roy scoffs, “I do not.” Roy drops his smirk for a moment before it is back on his face. “Ah, oh well, it’ll be fine. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
—
“So, why do we have a murder in the watchtower?” Oliver asks. Dinah sighs next to him, even after she told him repeatedly the Red Hood is reformed, Oliver is still in disbelief as are most of the other Leaguers in the room.
“I mean, Batman, uh, Nightwing, uh, he said that Red Hood is fine.” Shazam nervously responds. Several leaguers raise an eyebrow at him.
“No, Shazam is right.” Roy says as he walks into the room. “Red Hood is reformed,” mostly, he adds silently.
“Why was a known murderer, reformed or not, allowed with Batman’s child?” Arthur asks. Oliver and Clark nod their heads in agreement. Even though Clark knows that Dick must have a good reason to trust this man, he can’t seem to figure out how.
“Well that kid is Hood’s nibling.” Roy responds with a shrug.
“Nibling?” Arthur asks.
“Nephew sibling,” Shazam and Roy respond at the same time.
“But that would mean that Red Hood is the current Batman’s brother.” Oliver states, earning a nod from Roy. “And that he is the original Batman’s son.”
Roy nods again, smiling. “Now you’re getting it, Ollie.”
Clark does some mental calculations, thinking about Bruce’s kids, thinking about what he knows about them. He knows who Dick and Damian are obviously, and he doesn’t delude himself into thinking that Tim and Cass are staying out of the vigilante life anymore. But neither of them could physically be the Red Hood. Which would mean that Red Hood is-
“Son of a bitch,” Clark mutters, earning a shocked gasp from Shazam. Roy smiles larger and nods his head towards the door.
“I’m going to be going back.” Roy states, starting to leave the room, not allowing anyone else to ask anymore questions.
“I’m going with you.” Clark declares, jumping up. He catches up with Roy.
He has a nephew who is a few years short on hugs to meet again.
—
“Damn,” Ollie mutters, petting his goatee. “Batman having three kids.”